I’ve been after a project guitar for months and months, and I’ve finally got one. On Denmark street a couple of Saturdays ago, I looked at a bunch of Squiers and entry level Mex Teles on my fairly half-arsed search for a modder, and came away uninspired. It seemed a bit dumb to buy something too ‘nice’, a USA model of some sort, and then start upgrading, but equally so to get a cheap base guitar and stuff it with expensive bits. When I wandered in to the relatively new No.Tom — which has taken the place of Vintage & Rare, has a much better *real world* selection, and much nicer staff — I saw the answer.

The Baja Telecaster is a Mexican-made model which entered production a few years ago, and is widely (apparently universally) acclaimed as being ‘one-of-those’…a great guitar that defies expectations associated with instruments of its provenance (think Squier JV). The neck has a 50s-style profile, fatter than my other pair, with a good feel; the body is a heavy piece of ash (same as the others). It’s a quality feeling instrument for sure, and comes with a pair of custom shop pickups, overall making for a great base on which to build my custom creation. (It was a weird process, buying something for its potential rather than its existing features. All that was of concern was the feel of the neck and body, and it handily ticked both of those boxes.)

Any negatives are now items on the shopping list, and good as this guitar is, there are quite a few items for attention. I have a few improvements to start with (some of which are fixes for questionable Fender Mexico QA), and then it’s going to be a test bed for all manner of ideas.

As I type, it’s in the shop having the existing nut (plastic, slightly angled, machine cut) replaced for a higher quality bone nut, and being set up for 10s. The next changes will be removing the tone pot, face-mounting the jack socket (both standard mods I have carried out on my other guitars), replacing the volume pot for a 500kΩ (for more top) or just a better quality 250kΩ, removing the S1 switching and chucking the 4-way switch for a 3- or, if I can find it, 2-way switch.

But that’s just going to be for starters. It might be sporting a Bigsby next week, and maybe an active pickup or two…or three? I’m very much looking forward to seeing where this one takes me.

I’m thinking this is a pretty hot look. White on white is too white, ivory on white looks like a crappy relic job. I also discovered recently that Fender actually manufacture a Telecaster with an SG-style jack and a single volume control – it’s a bit embarrassing, though.

So much tone info in such a short clip. I’m revisiting this video mainly to get a closer look at the Valley Arts guitar Larry was playing way back then – the tone he gets on Last Nite is beyond awesome, and even though he apparently talks trash about those guitars today, I think the tone speaks for itself. I’m looking for a replacement pickup set for my white Telecaster at the moment (something a bit smoother, and with a higher output), and the EMGs seem like a good candidate (plus, the seal of approval from an ’80s Larry Carlton doesn’t hurt). I was pointed in the direction of the Bare Knuckle ‘Piledriver’ Telecaster set a couple of weeks ago, and they do sound great…but I think I’m after something a little bit less ‘rock’ and a bit more ‘jazz’ (<< that’s an oh so clever Dumble reference, a-ha-ha-ha).